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Day 5 of @traumas-tmntober-2024 A Horrible Accident

Siege of the Dying

Leonardo is a proffesional field medic. His limits are still tested and a lot has to happen to fully snap. Explore twenty-one hours of how and why Leo loses all hope.

OR

Leo is a stressed medic, people die and he falls deeper into the slums as Mikey wont take care of himself or his ninpo.

CW: Includes depictions of blood, light gore, needles, syringes, IVs, oxygen masks, death, asphyxiation, medical malpractise, burns, improvised medications, partial decapitation, restraints and other medical equipment. Please do not read if any of this is triggering. Take care of yourselves.

Word Count: 3956

Hour Zero.

The base was running as smoothly as it could in the apocalypse. The squad's still recovering from earlier missions were asleep in their dorms. Squad 7 and 8 were up and about getting ready to be deployed. Those not needed but not resting were doing their other duties or finding ways to still have fun during the end of the world.

There was a sense of unease though. It had been over half an hour since Squad 6 were meant to have returned. That wasn't particularly unusual and it could even mean something good. Last time this had happened they'd found a huge bunker filled with survivors and taken them to the closer sister camp before returning with the supplies they'd scrounged up and traded for.

It was when an alarm suddenly blared that Leo realised it was not for anything good. That alarm was specialised as a medical emergency. He barely had a moment to stand up and leave the meeting room when the doors burst open and a haze of people swarmed in. Shit.

Hour One.

The alarm had been turned off but the noise was still overwhelming. Wails and screams clashed with heart monitors, vital readings and loud orders he could hear himself yelling. He was attaching an IV drip to a man with his leg up to his mid thigh torn off and burns all over him. Behind him he could hear the heart monitor flatline as one of his self-trained team administered CPR. The yokai kept going but Leo could already tell they weren't coming back.

Two new people were dragged in when He told someone to go grab Michelangelo. Kraang possession in the early stages: incomplete. He had them restrained by some of the soldiers from Squad 9 that were pulled in to help as he started to cauterise the man's leg in front of him, far too early for the pain medication to have settled in but he didn't have the time.

There were 6 people being treated for large stab and slash wounds and many if those and others had third and fourth degree burns and other lacerations that needed attending to and his small team of 4 wasn't enough. He quickly cut the remaining of the bottoms off of the poor man and called one of his medi-students over, handing them the tablet.

“I need to know if this man has any history listed with hypokalemia, kidney stones or other lactic acidosis. Anything that would oppose use of Ringer's lactate?” Leo started pulling the solution into the syringe. Even if this man did need another solution instead there were so many burn victims at least one of them could benefit from it.

“He does not, Master.”

There was no hesitation then when he injected the delirious man with the solution and grabbed the cold compresses one of his team must have retrieved. A lot of the skin was burned but very little seemed to be fourth degree. Most of it was third or blistering deeply in second degree which he could work with.

The screams of the Kraang-ified patients hadn't died down any and as more of the squad got dragged in, wails only amplified. Their limited supplies were sure to dwindle to unmanageable before everyone even got seen to. Leo would have to hold back on pain medication for a few of the patients with lesser issues so it would go further.

A female lizard yokai and a male bull yokai were taken out of the medical wing and the loud flatlines had been replaced with beating hearts. Their passings couldn't even be respected until they were out of sight before the resources were redistributed to those that still needed them. Another cruel truth of the apocalypse. Before he could zone out he bit his tongue hard and kept himself grounded.

Once he had directed one of his team to finish taking care of the man he moved onto a bear yokai that had just been hooked up to a heart monitor. He had his work cut out for him. He was no dermatologist so the face wounds he was about to treat were likely to scar deeply.

Hour Four.

Leo was now helping treat those affected by the Kraang. The Kraang possession hadn’t completed, but he could see the telltale bulging veins creeping up the patient’s neck, turning black under the skin. Their eyes flickered with unnatural yellow sclera. Part yokai, part Kraang, trapped in between. It was their job to bring them back to just yokai.

The warm orange glow of Mikey's ninpo was easy to work in. He'd been going for almost 3 hours, pushing the Kraang out of their heads but Leo was trying to help where he could. They had long been strapped down but IVs and sedations had managed to aid them slightly.

Currently, one of the IV’s drip chamber had filled with fluid so Leo tipped it upside down and tapped it as it reset. Something he deemed doable without any medical knowledge but his brother needed him as well so he took on menial tasks for the moment. His baby brother flickered in and out of his connection for a moment before glowing stronger. That kid knew how to make him worry.

Hour Seven

The smell started to make him dizzy. Blood, pus, chemicals, body odour and more all swirled in a poisonous concoction that threatened to distract him. The woman beneath his hands stared icily back at him. CPR had failed, the defibrillator had failed and now she was dead. She had departed.

How many more times could he close someone’s eyes, knowing they wouldn't open again? This woman had joked with him just two hours earlier when he was treating her a bit before she went into shock. Everyone that had departed today had stories of their lives, some even where Leo had interacted with them before they arrived at their deathbed. Like the bear yokai that helped in the kitchen. Leo’s hands shook, but he couldn’t afford weakness now. He had to press on.

He still didn't continue to act until one of his medics came up to him with a clipboard. “Master, could we spare some pain killers for Marilyn?”

Leo smiled softly. The young girl in front of him suddenly seemed 17 again and not 25. He knew how it felt to treat family and friends and wanted to give them care first and only the best but they couldn't afford that right now.

Supplies were dwindling faster than expected. Leo and his team were already forced to make gut-wrenching choices about who gets treatment and who doesn't. He was sure at least three deaths today was because of inadequate supplies and equipment and that reflected deeply on his soul. He placed a hand on her shoulder and lightly squeezed.

“I know you want them to go to your sister, Penny but we can't afford to give medicine to anyone who doesn't absolutely need any right now. It's-”

Leo was cut off when another of his medics came to grab him for an emergency surgery. He rushed over and assessed the situation and found out it was another sacrifice case. The patient had seen others suffering and had hidden a bullet wound for approximately 8 hours with just pressure, the wound having started healing but barely.

“Well, he's gonna have to use those pain killers. It's not severe enough to need anaesthesia.” Leo went to wash his hands quickly as the patient was injected and surgical tools were readied.

Once he returned the patient was crying less but still whimpering. Leo let one of his team pull his gloves on before dismissing them to check on the vomiting case on the other side of the medbay. He sighed before starting digging in with some tools to get the bullet out. There wasn't many bullet wounds they saw nowadays but friendly fire was still common enough that Leo let himself zone out and follow well practised steps without focusing too hard.

His back and arms and neck and feet and calves and- Okay, everything hurt and his pounding headache was only getting worse but he had responsibility. He had to lead his team and the resistance through this hiccup. This wasn't their first rodeo. It wasn't even in the double but instead triple digits of how many times they'd done this. They were a well oiled machine but it still took its toll on him.

Leo let the repetitive and familiar motions cloud the noise in his head and drown out the shrieks still echoing the far too cramped room.

Hour Nine.

The Kraang possession was spreading. There was a winged yokai of some kind that was closest to the original two that were possessed that they'd managed to infect. That had gone unnoticed until they had already started twitching and whispering erratically and had managed to infect two more.

That's when they had finally started quarantining patients. They had to fully ban visitors and barricade off the medbay doors. Before they did that though there were a few soldiers that volunteered to help the medics. They all had basic first aid knowledge and could certainly cut down work such as running around to get stuff or straining themselves surveilling peoples conditions as much so Leo accepted them onto the team. This increased his team from 4 medics to 4 medics and 5 helpers. They set up sheets and had the kraang infected squished into the farthest corner segregated off completely.

He was down a medic now as one had to stay in there to keep the infected down and to make sure Mikey was uninterrupted and wasn't a risk as he stretched his ninpo further. Reaching between five people was positively going to put great strain on his body, mind and mystics. Riley promised to keep his Master and peers safe. He trusted him.

After the scare though the rest of his team and himself worked on organising the medbay more into sectors and keeping them segregated. The moment of calm was a haven after the chaos so far. They took this down time as a moment to put the most at risk on the opposite side to the Kraang and further separated by curtains. The ones with serious injuries but were stable were next to the Kraang separated by a foot and doubled up curtains and opposing the Kraang were serious injuries that were still being treated and were unstable or too intermittent with stability.

That was all the space they had, they couldn't separate by burns or wounds or surgical concerns further. They had a small section where all the medical supplies were pushed to to create room for the patients. Leo sat against a tiny amount of spare wall they had and sunk to the ground. It hadn't lasted a full minute before he was needed for resuscitation.

Hour Thirteen.

Alarms blared and echoed off of his clinic's walls, it disturbed him and his patients. It filled them all with fear quickly and he had to stop many of the delirious injured from jumping at the siren. He was sure every single person in the resistance would wake from deep sleep at that alarm that let them know the Kraang were attacking the base. They'd either been found or were close to being discovered.

Leo wanted to curse the cruel God that was playing with their lives that had let this happen but he'd rather God hesitate before condemning him to hell. That was how Leo found himself stood in front of the poorly barricaded door being shouted at.

“What are you doing?” One soldier exclaimed.

“We need to go help them now!” Another added, “There won't be any injured or sick to heal if we just don't fight!”

“It's a matter of responsibility. I swore to the resistance.” Yet another exclaimed.

Leo pinched the bridge of his beak. If he let them go he'd only have five more to heal but if they each took out a hound dog before that that is almost a quarter of a usual hoard. They weren't weak either, they could handle themselves enough. He'd be really understaffed though. Why was he made the leader again?

“Alright. Four of you can go and one of you can stay and aid my team. Alice,” *He pointed at the hyena yokai. “You are to stay, you are my quickest runner and I need that right now. Help me take this barricade down.” He ordered.

Once the soldiers left they did a quick loop of everyone. Leo had to amputate someone's hand and resuscitate two people whilst they did rounds. He asked Alice to count up their remaining supply when she had a moment before he walked off.

Leo entered the Kraang-ified section. Mikey’s ninpo is powerful, that was a well-known fact but it’s also draining. By now he's been pushing himself for hours, and the physical toll starts to show. His eyes had sunken in deeply, his hair was matted and had thick clumps of grey among the jet black. A sheen of mystic that resembled sweat was bubbling on his skin which drew his eyes to Mikey's hands, trembling. He dismissed Riley to go check on other duties.

Leo grabbed his brother and manoeuvred him easily as he floated down. This seemed to break his concentration and he blinked his eyes open wearily.

“Hey, baby bro. You've been busy.” He grinned but it faltered as Mikey touched down and fell into his arms like dead weight. He'd collapsed in his arms and Leo almost panicked. He slowly lowered Mikey to the ground gently, aware of his shell so he didn't tip and raised his legs, propping them on a chair.

Mikey was out for just a few minutes before he woke up. Leo had fetched water and had pulled out a granola bar before he had woken up. “You back with me Mike?”

Mikey groaned.

“I hear ya. Take your time. You collapsed due to mystic exhaustion- I'm not happy about that b-t-dubs.”

“Wouldn't expect nothin’ less, bro.” It took a short while before Mikey sat up and gulped the water down and scarfed the homemade granola down like a dying man. Leo had seen many today alone. Leo shuffled on the uncomfortable floor and held an arm out, catching Mikey as he dove for it.

He laughed. “Thanks Mikey. I needed this.”

“You've been working so hard! You deserve it.”

“So have you, you little brat!”

Mikey stayed silent and looked up to the victims. They were quieter now, heavily sedated but still awake. A horrific purgatory they had to endure because their bodies couldn't handle anything stronger but the Kraang in them wasn't subdued by chemicals so weak.

“I think it's time we let them go. It hasn't taken you this long to heal an infected since you first tried.” Leo held a finger up as Mikey tried to interject. “I know it's your first time spreading it across five people at once but that's why I think it won't be worth it.”

Leo bundled Mikey into his arms and stood up. He looked towards the first two infected. “Any longer and they will be fully turned and you won't have the time nor energy to heal the other three left. You'd have to choose just one to save and that likely won't work and you won't be able to choose who deserves to live. Any way you slice it, at minimum, four people will be consumed today.”

“I can't just let them die, Leo! I can't!” Soothing circles were rubbed into his shell as he held back sobs. They were middle aged turtles who had seen this countless times. Mikey thought he had no reason to be crying.

“I know you want to save them, I do too but it'd be more merciful to put them out of their misery before the corrosion chemicals are needed to kill them. At least this way their family has a body to bury.”

Mikey let this information rattle in his skull. Just as he was about to protest further, a burst of chaos and ear bursting noise cascaded.

“I'll leave you for now but wait at least 20 minutes before doing any mystic mojo, okay?” Leo rushed as he set Mikey down.

Hour Sixteen.

Leo stepped over a sixteen year old soldier's leg as he rushed to a woman who was asphyxiating. They had long since stopped being able to make epi pens but they had managed to make piriton and piriteze. He forced 10 tablets down the human's throat and monitored her closely, whispering reassurances to her.

The wave of those injured was far too large for his medbay now. People were now in chairs and sprawled over the floor completely unorganised and haphazardly, clinging to each other in pain as blood poured everywhere. As he was waiting for the women to return to normal breathing the doors burst open again.

One of the commanders stumbled in, dragging her mangled arm behind her. 'We held them back... but barely.' Leo’s heart sank as another wave of the wounded flooded in after her.

The med bay was completely swamped and his tiny team was struggling. He poked his head into the quarantined Kraang area to grab his medic when he witnessed it. Just at that moment, the Kraang overpowered their restraints and slashed his medic's neck. It was so deep he could see the bone clearer than an x-ray.

He was dead. His corpse slumped to the floor. If we weren't already dead the snap his neck had upon impact would've done it. He dragged Mikey out of there, and let go of him to float around the medbay as he rushed to grab the tranq dart modified with that specialised corrosive acid he was often thanking more than God.

He injected it into the infected's blood stream with great difficulty but somehow he'd done it with no injury and minimal damage. He then grabbed some solutions with basic chemicals like potassium at a degree too high to function and injected it into the other kraang infected that hadn't yet been consumed.

The life peacefully drained out of the second but the skin was starting to corrode of the first. It was a gruesome sight as it mangled with his medic's blood. He decided to just let the rest go and call time of death. They were too far gone to survive and they'd suffer greatly if by some miracle they did.

Leo had exited the quarantine to find Mikey patching Donnie up from presumably a slash wound. It'd likely only be another fifteen-to-twenty minutes before he'd be discharged and forced to leave the slummed clinic. Leo gave them a curt nod before addressing a few others to clear up the bodies so he could use the space to treat others.

He stared off as he thought back to how he reacted. He tried to justify what he did. It wasn't retaliation, it was logical. It was survival. There was no ethical debate needed. This wasn't one of the things that made Leo an awful person. Yes the young boy he cared for had been killed but he had acted in best faith to his now deceased patient. He wasn't showing malpractice with bias- Hah! Even if he was, who was gonna fire him?

The weight of it all felt like it would crush him. Another dead body. Another life he couldn’t save. Was this all they were doomed to now? A slow march toward extinction? That was a thought that he kept having over the years and it only felt more and more true. They weren't resisting the Kraang to save the Earth. They were simply fighting extinction. It was a bitter thought that would have had Raoh slap him around the back of the head for were he here.

Hour Nineteen.

Leo was close to losing it. Twelve people dead and removed. Three amputations. Seven were hooked up to oxygen masks and IVs. Fourteen people had regular infections that could turn deadly any second on top of their wounds. Six more people had started showing early signs of Kraang infection.

Leo wasn't sure if he was stressed or getting ill. They had run out of masks months ago and gloves and sanitisation can only go so far when someone coughs wet blood in your face. He was stretched even thinner with the huge crowd of people demanding severe medical care. It was just short of 200 spread across his 3 trained medics and Alice, still helping out.

Mikey had recovered enough to start working on the few in the early stages of infection when Donateelo returned. The vang of the doors almost made him snap angrily when he saw eight people enter. Medics from their sister-resistance.

He was so happy he could cry. He would do that late when he didn't have to give them the run down and delegate them accordingly. In a matter of moments things were looking up and seeming less bleak. If they were lucky he wouldn't have to hear anyone else's pulse stop today.

Hour Twenty-one.

Suddenly, the doors to the medical wing slammed open, and a soldier from Squad 8 burst in, her armour scorched and cracked. She was panting heavily, eyes wild with panic. "Leo—you need to come outside. Now."

He felt a pit form in his stomach, but he forced himself to follow. He had the ability to now with the miraculous medical reinforcements but he still didn't feel good about it. He stepped out into the open air, his mind reeling from the thick smell of burning metal and ash. Soldiers were standing on the walls of the base, their weapons pointed at the horizon.

“What’s going on?” Leo demanded, striding toward the rampart where the squad leader, Darius, stood with his binoculars glued to his face.

Darius handed them over without a word, his expression grim. Leo hesitated before bringing the binoculars to his eyes. What he saw made his blood run cold.

In the distance, the horizon wasn’t clear. It shimmered, a sea of unnatural movement. Hundreds.. No. Thousands! Thousands! A hoard thrice the size they were used to. Kraang-mutated yokai, humans and objects, their bodies and shapes warped and grotesque, shambled toward the base in a relentless, unified swarm. Their glowing yellow eyes flickered in the permanently pink sky, pulsing like sickening stars.

At the centre of the swarm, a towering Kraang general stood, easily three times the size of any other yokai. Its body was a mass of writhing tendrils and armoured plates. It towered over the Kraang that piloted it and the robotic head was vibrant with its blood red light. Piloting the grotesque hive mind.

“They’re coming straight for us,” Darius muttered. “And there’s no way we can hold them back for long. Not in this state.”

Leo’s heart raced. They were barely holding things together with the wounded they had now. If that swarm hit the base, they wouldn't just be out of supplies—they’d be overrun. His mind raced as he considered the dwindling stock of medicine, the exhausted soldiers, and the Kraang-possessed patients already inside.

“Time?” Leo managed to ask, his voice hoarse.

“Two hours, maybe less,” Darius replied.

Two hours. Two hours before that mass of corrupted bodies would be at their gates, clawing and tearing at everything in its path.

Leo lowered the binoculars and turned back toward the medical wing, his thoughts racing. They couldn’t survive this. Not without a miracle. But he didn't ask for miracles.

They had to evacuate.

If the writing style flops around its probably because I was flopping inbetween writing about Marxism and Neo-Marxist theories and the Catholic Church's involvement in poverty and opression and the revolustionist priests and then flopping back to writing about Leo's inner turmoil. Tonal whiplash for me.

HEYY!! So this was a doozy!! I spent a lot of the day writing this and have researched it as much as I could but who knew getting medical information about ringers lactate replacements and fourth degree burn treatments wouldn't be public info?

The original idea for this fic was to take the easy way out and write about Leo or Raph losing their arm in the apocalypse or out of it but then I sae another medic Leo post and got INSPIRATION!! (Dangerous).

Instead of pre-writting tomorrow's fic I decided to write this one as doubky long and I don't regret it. Wish I could leave it longer, I skipped a lot!!

Its so clear I have a favourite Rise Turtle sjbsjff!

Comments are much appreciated!!

Day 6 of @traumas-tmntober-2024 An Injustice

Two Weeks of Eternity

A farewell was something Donnie was far too young to have let alone a funeral. None of them could process the fact that he was gone and they didn't even have his body to bury.

OR

What if April couldn't bring Donnie back

Word Count: 1489

Two weeks. Two weeks was a very short amount of time. Two weeks was common. Two weeks was a blip in the universe. Two weeks wasn't even anything that special within just a year. Yet, the two weeks it had been since Donnie had passed stretched on like an eternity.

Raphael sat in silence, rolling his wrist absentmindedly. His fingers were tightly wrapped in bandages, splinted with a precision that should’ve been Donnie’s work. But it wasn’t Donnie. It was Leo. Leo, who had quietly taken over the task Donnie used to scold him about, patching up injuries, grumbling under his breath about Raph's recklessness. The absence of Donnie’s voice, that familiar mixture of annoyance and care, hung over him like a ghost. Was it strange to miss being scolded?

He didn't know where he had gotten that injury. His knuckles throbbed as he tried to think back to where it could of happened. Moments after April- He punched the metal column harshly once. Then again. And again.

Later on, when April had come back to her senses, Raphael had decided to remedy that. By beating her senseless. She had killed his little brother. His twin. She had done so many awful, inexcusable things to Donnie that he had let slide. He'd even let Donnie's own strange behaviour, his misplaced loyalty in her go a little for his sake but he was not going to sleep on this. He was done managing his temper.

So he snapped and charged toward her, knocked her to the ground. He pulled back and rammed forward right for her nose, the wet crack of cartilage echoed in the dim alley. The second hit landed squarely on her jaw. Twice. Then he hit her cheekbone. Then her lip. He punched her so hard she was coughing up blood and teeth. He got one more wallop to the eye before Leo had bothered to pull him off of that bitch!

Raphael didn’t resist. He couldn’t bring himself to fight his brothers, no matter how much rage clawed at his chest. But as he turned back toward April, a low growl tore from his throat. He spat at her, his disgust seething through his entire body. The sight of her mangled face and tangled hair had barely even satisfied him. His heart hammered as he breathed raggedly, he itched to do more. Deep inside he was still screaming to do more but it was all pointless. If Donnie knew what he'd just done he would be livid. But Donnie was gone now.

Raph would bet money that if Donnie somehow managed to come back after that he would just forgive her and move on immediately. Too soft-hearted, too goddamned willing to let her get away with everything, even when it had destroyed him in the end. He was so down bad it had gotten him killed. It infuriated him. Raphael raised his good hand to knock on Leonardo's door.

Leonardo slowly tied the mask around his face, his fingers trembling as he secured the knot. The mask was such a deep, inky blue that in the dim light, it seemed indistinguishable from black. It clung to his scales, a second layer meant to hide the cracks in his composure, to bury the emotions clawing their way to the surface. The dark fabric would conceal the tears he knew were coming, the moisture soaking in without a trace, but it couldn’t hide the bloodshot edges of his eyes. They glared through the narrow slits, raw with the weight of sleepless nights and a mind tangled in turmoil.

He stared into the mirror, the mask transforming him into a stranger. It was ironic, how something meant to conceal could only magnify his pain. Yet still, he tied the mask tighter, hoping it would somehow hold everything in place: his face, his grief, his unravelling.

They were holding his funeral today. There wasn’t much they could do without a body, but their father was used to that kind of grief. He had mourned Tang Shen for sixteen long years and Miwa for fifteen. So the funeral had been set up accordingly but they had all seen their Sensei's face yesterday. His eyes deep with an ache he had learned to carry in silence, and now, it was happening again.

The rituals would be the same as they'd always witnessed: flowers, incense, whispered prayers, but the emptiness would weigh heavier without a body to lay to rest. And with how he died, his soul could be just as vapourised

A cool hand rested on his shoulder, causing him to look at his younger brother. It was painful to see him in a mask colour so unlike his own. Where Leo's mask was blue it wasn't too unsightly to see himself in black but the dark carmine of Raphael's mask made him want to weep again. It didn't suit his fiery personality, the anger that was meant to fuel his every move.

Instead it was just the underlying fear that was present. He had to be strong for the both of them. He steeled himself, clenching his fist tight, fingernails digging under the scales and teeth clenching painfully. With great difficulty he reached up to Raph's hand with his own and rested there for just a moment before he brushed him off and silently made for the door.

He wasn't strong enough for weak words right now. Small comforts and placations wouldn't work on Raph if he had the strength to try. It felt odd describing himself as leading Raph to Mikey even though if Donnie were here, that very same act wouldn't have changed at all. Every consuming thought was plagued by the nightmare-turned-reality.

Leo didn’t bother stopping at Mikey’s room. He already knew it was empty. Mikey hadn’t slept there since that night. He had always spent more time in other parts of the lair, but now he avoided his room entirely, as if stepping inside might force him to confront the nightmare they were all living in. Lately, Mikey either slept in Leo or Raph’s room, wandered through the kitchen, dozed off on the couch, or sat silently in Donnie’s lab. Mikey’s usual energy had been snuffed out, his laughter hollow, his smiles strained and far too thin to convince anyone that he was okay. Every joke fell flat, and seeing that forced brightness on Mikey’s face was almost worse than his sadness.

The sliding door of the dojo parted easily, where the funeral was to be held and where they found Mikey. He was darting from place to place: rearranging flowers in an intricate pattern; placing a photo of Donnie on an easel so it was easy to see; and straightening up the little trinkets placed on the small wooden shrine. At the top of the shrine sat Donnie’s mask—the only thing left of him since April…

Casey stood off to the side, leaning against the wall, watching in silence. The weight of the moment stretched on, unbroken until finally someone spoke.

“This doesn’t feel real,” Casey muttered, his voice low.

Raph scoffed softly. “You can say that again, Jones.”

“This is surreal!” He repeated with a bitter tone. And he meant it. Just two weeks ago Donnie had trained in this very dojo, full of life but getting his ass beat. Now he had a mourning shrine here to offer a cruel solace to the living as he floated through space and time or whatever hell April had condemned him to.

Leo dragged his feet along the carpet as he made his way to Master Splinter's door. He knew when he knocked, he would emerge. Then he'd let everyone else attending Donatello's funeral in. Karai, Slash, Leatherhead, Dr Rockwell, Pidgeon Pete, Mondo Gecko, Timothy, and Shinigami. Everyone they knew and trusted were to be let in to pay respects to Donnie. Leo knew it was selfish to stand here with his hand raised to knock yet still refuse to start it just to put it off for himself.

He wasn’t ready to let go. Not yet. The crushing weight of admitting Donnie was truly gone pressed down on him like an anvil. The finality of it wrapped around his chest, constricting until it was hard to breathe. He wasn’t ready to accept that there was nothing left of his baby brother par memories, nothing but this pain shared between them all. But Leo knew he couldn’t hold onto this moment forever. He had to let the others grieve too. This wasn’t a burden for him to carry alone. He was probably selfish, hoping it was just his burden because that would mean none of them cared for Donnie.

With a deep breath, Leo finally raised his hand and knocked. There was no turning back now.

Truthfully, Leo knew there had been turning back as soon as Donnie started to plead and beg April for his life.

Hello!! I say todays prompt but its 3am of the 7th Whoops. Todays prompt was hard to get started but thanks to @agalactichalo I was able to start steamrolling this fic.

It ended up being an episode rewrite plus an au because the writers constantly served an injustice to the audience withApril's poor writing. They couldn't handle complex trauma and plots for her and they always bent the story so she would be painted in the most positive light even when she didn't deserve it. I was so angry when none of the brother's reacted to Donnie's death properly and just forgave April immediately. It was so poorly handled and Donnie doesnt process trauma like at all. Like please, babygirl, you can process the fact you just died!!

Also the panning and zoom in on Casey was so funny. Like why did they choose Jones, his rival out of everyone to focus on aftsr his death if they weren't destined to be boyfriends??? And the rain!! Pathetic Fallacy at its finest and these are two pathetic idiots in love your honour. Anywhizzle, I rewrote it with Raph beating the crap out if April because thats more in line with his character that the episode to me and I found it cathartic. Fanon April I love you so much, pls dont hate me.

Also does anyone know if its 'bar' or 'par' or 'pare' for 'something absolute EXCEPT this'? Many thanks if so!